Richard Allen, the first black ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church (1799), and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1816, was born in slavery in Philadelphia in 1760. To read an excellent short article on Allen, click here or here.
“This land, which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is now our mother country, and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom abounds and gospel is free.”
“We deemed it expedient to have a form of discipline, whereby we may guide our people in the fear of God, in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bonds of peace, and preserve us from that spiritual despotism which we have so recently experienced–remembering that we are not to lord it over God’s heritage, as greedy dogs that can never have enough. But with long suffering, and bowels of compassion to bear each other’s burdens, and so fulfill the Law of Christ, praying that our mutual striving together for the promulgation of the Gospel may be crowned with abundant success." Excerpt from Bishop Allen’s autobiographical work, The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen
On Feb. 14, 1847, Anna Howard Shaw, one of the most influential leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, was born on this day in 1847. She was also a physician and a Methodist minister. Following her death on July 2, 1919, her obituary appeared in The New York Times. (Go to obit)
Some trivia about Shaw:
- Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000.
- The first woman to be ordained by the Protestant Methodist Church.
- She was the first living American woman to be awarded the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal (1919).
- Shaw earned a medical degree from Boston University in 1886 (though never practiced medicine).
A couple of quotes:
“Preparedness for war is an incentive to war, and the only hope of permanent peace is the systematic and scientific disarmament of all the nations of the world.”
“It is better to be true to what you believe, though that be wrong, than to be false to what you believe, even if that belief is correct.”
Ira F. Stanphill, an Assemblies of God clergyman and songwriter was born today in 1914. He is known by many for the hymn, "Room at the Cross," which he penned in 1946. It was a favorite hymn in the church of my childhood and youth, and some of the words are:
The cross upon which Jesus died
Is a shelter in which we can hide
And its grace so free is sufficient for me
And deep is its fountain as wide as the sea.
There’s room at the cross for you
There’s room at the cross for you
Though millions have come, there’s still room for one
Yes there’s room at the cross for you.
